Venezuela, 18 other nations create food fund

Source: Miami Herald

Venezuela, 18 other nations create food fund
Posted on Thu, Jul. 31, 2008
Associated Press

TEGUCIGALPA -- Venezuela and 18 nations in the Americas have created a regional food fund to help ensure supplies for poor countries.

The fund known as Petro Food is largely backed by a Venezuelan promise to donate five U.S. cents for every barrel of oil Venezuela sells at prices of more than $100 per barrel.

It is expected to provide $400 million to $500 million per year for farm development and other projects in Central America and the Caribbean.

Many of those nations already participate in Venezuela's Petrocaribe plan, under which Venezuela provides oil at preferential terms and prices.

Agricultural ministers from the 18 countries issued a joint declaration on the new food fund Wednesday at a meeting in Honduras, whose president announced that his country is also joining the Venezuelan-led leftist trade group known as the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/624356.html

Caracas, jueves 31 de julio, 2008
Economía

Petrocaribe members meet to establish food fund

Agriculture Ministers from the 18 Petrocaribe member countries met in Honduras to review the agriculture and food cooperation proposal made by Venezuela in order to establish a USD 400 million to USD 500 million fund per year for farm development, AP reported.

"This meeting aims at regulating the Petroalimentos (food) fund, to which all Petrocaribe member countries will have access,'' the Honduran Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Héctor Hernández, said.

The ministers will also set quotas on food that may be used to pay part of the fuel supplied to them by Venezuela. This is another benefit provided for under the program.

Petrocaribe is a Caribbean oil alliance with Venezuela under special payment terms and conditions.

http://english.eluniversal.com/2008/07/31/en_eco_art_petrocaribe-members_31A1859479.shtml
(Opposition newspaper)

He gives me more hope than any US politician. Hope for the world, not just for US citizens.

Viva Chavez!

in your country. Just see how the corporate media distorts news about Democrats; Chavez must give them heart attacks! (Tee hee!)

The corporate media will not cover it. Anything Hugo Chavez does is considered an effront to USA style capitalism...and that, of course, is terrorism (as is anything that doesn't agree with the Bush regime) Ha.
Viva Chavez! He puts the U.S. to shame.

Petro Food. I thought a giant part of the problem was all the oil we use to grow food? Then a food fund is named Petro Food? Really?

So we won't be fixing any problems then? Aren't we hurting the poor if we don't consume massive amounts of expensive oil?

You can't just keep printing it.

"all the oil we use to grow food " ?

hydrocarbon sources for their production, so oil and Natural gas are used to produce fertilizers to grow food.

The agricultural equipment uses much fuel and the pesticides and other farm chemicals are produced from oil.

we should get used to doing it all a different way - same as our ancestors did. They must have been reasonably successful for us to be having this conversation.

I've been converting to the old way for years (organic) I find that I get better yields and the produce tastes much better. I have very little problem with insects since I grow flowers that attract predatory species. Honeybees are plentiful since they are one of the most sensitive to pesticides.
I also save my own seeds.

The problem is that Big Ag doesn't make much off of me. I put it in my pocket instead.

That's the Murrican Way.

The beauty of this plan is that it harnesses SUV and Pickup Truck nation's waste to help the poor.

Once again, Venezuela leads. Murrica follows.

what will they think of next?

he will be trying to sell heating oil to the northeast for a reduced price! :)

dictator.

usual suspects haven't chimed in. Maybe they've got the day off?

about the magic laptop. My bad!

OIL-CARIBBEAN: Petrocaribe Building ‘Anti-Crisis, Anti-Hunger Shield’
By Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Jul 14 (IPS) - Seventeen countries in Central America and the Caribbean are to make down payments of only 40 percent on Venezuelan oil, while cooperating to expand their food supply, and calling on the North to take measures to curb speculation on futures markets, which is resulting in surging crude prices.

"Petrocaribe must become an anti-crisis shield to protect us from hunger," said Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez who hosted the Fifth Summit of this South-South alliance.

The Dominican Republic’s President Leonel Fernández proposed creating a bloc of the 57 poorest nations in the South who are net oil importers to lobby for a global cooperation agreement with oil producers, and to demand changes in the rules for futures markets.

Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, for his part, successfully argued that Petrocaribe address the issue of fertilisers, which have tripled in price in the last three years, threatening food production on Caribbean islands.

Not only Energy ministers will attend Petrocaribe meetings in future. At the summit, held in the city of Maracaibo, 600 kilometres west of Caracas, a council of Agriculture ministers was created, which is to meet for the first time on Jul. 30 in Tegucigalpa.

Petrocaribe was created in 2005 as a Venezuelan initiative to supply fuels, as well as extend payment facilities and logistical and technical help, to neighbouring countries that are net oil importers.

The beneficiaries are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname. Costa Rica was present as an observer at this summit.

More:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43184

I hope that one day our government will engage in this kind of creative, cooperative problem-solving.

opposite of the Bushista approach which uses promoting democracy as an excuse for a resource grab.

The solutions to the worlds problems are simple once the political will is in place.

Viva Chavez!